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Best Books of the Year 2025-2026
The Mirror & the Lamp asked students and faculty, what is the best book you read this year? Marjorie Allison The book I…
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Letter from the Chair
Hello from Simpkins Hall! As the Interim Chair of the Department of English for 2025-2026, I have had the privilege of working…
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Five Childhood Books You May Have Forgotten
Our love for reading–for a lot of us readers and writers–was something that took root in our impressionable childhoods and molded our…
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Proust Questionnaire – Cecilia Garcia Luengas
Cecilia Garcia Luengas is a junior English Language and Literature major. She transferred from Southeastern Community College in Keokuk, Iowa. Garcia is…
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Class, Control, and Calculated Cruelty in “The Housemaid”
A review of The Housemaid, by Freida McFadden. Hachette Book Group, 2022. The Housemaid came to my attention after the movie adaptation…
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Coffee Talk – McKenna Schillinger
This was a live edited interview between Carter L. Myers and McKenna Schillinger, conducted on March 26th, 2026. McKenna Schillinger is in…
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Returning to the Foundation: Reflections on ENG 285
Last fall, I enrolled in a course that I had been quietly anticipating for many years. As a student pursuing a second…
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“Heated Rivalry” and the Miracle of Happy Endings in Queer Media
Heated Rivalry (2025) is a TV show created by Canadian actor and director Jacob Tierney. It is an adaptation of Rachel Reid’s…
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Coffee Talk – Karissa L. Geisinger
Karissa is a senior English major and Creative Writing minor at Western Illinois University. In their free time, they like to watch…
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Learning with Literature, Electric and Educated: A review of “The Flamethrowers”
A review of The Flamethrowers, by Rachel Kushner. Scribner, 2013. Some individuals may leave Rachel Kushner’s 2014 novel asking, ‘what was the…
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We must also be The Cure: A review of “Everything is Tuberculosis”
A review of Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green. Penguin Random House, 2025. 184 pages Everyone is familiar with John Green; he…
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What’s Your Bag? w/ Stephanie Bendeck Roman
M&L: What’s your bag? SBD: I actually received this bag from my older brother as a gift at my high school graduation…
The Department of English at Western Illinois University